Labor Day isn’t the holiday it once was for China’s workers
CNN
Like hundreds of millions of other workers in China, Hao Zeyu, an algorithm engineer at an electric vehicle maker, is getting five days off this week for the Labor Day holiday. But he’s in no mood to party.
Like hundreds of millions of workers in China, Hao Zeyu, an algorithm engineer at an electric vehicle maker, is getting five days off this week for the Labor Day holiday. But he’s in no mood to party. In order to take the vacation, Hao is required to work an extra day on each weekend immediately before and after the break. To add insult to injury, two of the official vacation days fall on Saturday and Sunday. That means just one of those five days counts as a genuine holiday. The practice of moving workdays to weekends to create a longer vacation during major Chinese holidays is known as “tiaoxiu” or adjusted rest. Introduced in 1999 to stimulate consumer spending following the Asian financial crisis, it has been the subject of much online anger in the weeks leading up to this year’s May 1 holiday. “I really don’t like it,” Hao told CNN. “I think this policy was meant to promote consumption at a certain stage of the country’s development, but I very much do not support it anymore,” he added. So, why has a decades-old policy caused so much upset in a country whose Communist Party leadership pays annual homage to International Workers’ Day?
Last-minute errands always seem to pop up on Christmas and Christmas Eve, whether it’s buying a quick present or picking up one last ingredient.
King Charles III has ended royal warrants for Cadbury and Unilever, which owns brands including Marmite and Ben & Jerry’s, in a blow to the household names.
While businesses across the US are fretting that President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of new tariffs could mean a massive hit to their bottom lines, at least one industry is gearing up for the exact opposite.
Back in 2022, when the labor market was so hot that Beyoncé even released a song about it, Americans were job hopping in large numbers, boosting their salary in the process.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has steered the world’s most powerful central bank during a tumultuous period for the US economy, from the pandemic to a historic bout of inflation shortly after.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has agreed to sell its Australian cable TV unit Foxtel to British-owned sports network DAZN for 3.4 billion Australian dollars ($2.1 billion) including debt, cutting the media empire’s exposure to a business upended by streaming platforms.
Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to join forces, forming world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.
The strike protests a lack of contract negotiations, including wage increases for union baristas.
This year was brutal for a number of well-known companies, including Red Lobster, True Value and Big Lots.
Last-minute holiday shoppers may want to give their digital carts a hard look, as Amazon workers remain on strike on the final weekend before Christmas.
Campaigners have accused Facebook parent Meta of inflicting “potentially lifelong trauma” on hundreds of content moderators in Kenya, after more than 140 were diagnosed with PTSD and other mental health conditions.